« Hack Attack: Mouse-less Firefox | Home | Once an Altoids tin, now a pinhole camera »
Time’s up for Internet phone providers to offer 911
By Larry Hendrick | November 30, 2005
I wonder what real effect this will have on the VoIP business model. It does not keep them from bringing on new customers, just new customer in certain areas. I am a vocal critic of the VoIP services as they are structured right now, but the deadline the FCC put on the companies was not even reasonable.
Implementing new technology is never easy to do and when you have to engineer the technology before you can install it, it takes even longer. Now the FCC is in a position to enforce the rules they put in place. Only time will tell how this will go.
Chron.com | Time’s up for Internet phone providers to offer 911
It was widely expected that no company would meet the deadline since the FCC had given them only 120 days to comply. The VON Coalition, an industry group, has said as much. The coalition did its own survey and estimated that about two-thirds of Internet phone users would have enhanced 911 by the deadline.
House and Senate lawmakers had urged FCC Chairman Kevin Martin to be more flexible, giving the companies more time and more tools to speed deployment, but no announcement of an extension was issued Monday by the FCC.
Citing public safety concerns, the FCC in May ordered companies selling Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, to ensure that callers can reach an emergency dispatcher when they dial 911. The dispatchers also must be able to tell where callers are located and the numbers from which they are calling.
VoIP providers were told that if they failed to meet the deadline they could no longer market their services or accept new customers in areas that didn’t have enhanced 911. They will not have to disconnect current customers who don’t have full 911 service, as some providers had feared.
Topics: Technology, VoIP |